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Flares help save French fishing crew

Flares were fired to alert maritime emergency services after a fire on a French fishing vessel.

The Saint Jean Pierre caught fire in the English Channel about 26 nm off Boulogne-sur-Mer, one night in April 2019.

The crew took to a liferaft and fired two red signal flares. These were seen by the crew of another fishing vessel, the Loïc II, who rescued the three survivors.

According to local media, the skipper of the Loïc II is the father of the skipper of the Saint Jean Pierre.

The customs patrol Jacques Oudart Fourmentin of Boulogne-sur-Mer and the Bee Languedoc tried to extinguish the fire on the ship. A French Navy helicopter Falcon 50 monitored the area. However, the Saint Jean Pierre later sank.

The image from the Premar Manche website shows the fire aboard the Saint Jean Pierre